An embodiment of the invention is directed to an improved approach for performing design rules driven (DRD) interactive violation display. There are many types of computing applications that utilize graphical user interfaces (GUIs) to enable users to visually edit and modify the configuration of objects on a screen. For example, many types of drawing and computer aided design (CAD) tools are implemented using GUI-style interfaces. The GUI interface permits the user to visually manipulate the configuration of objects that are being drawn and displayed on the screen of a display device. In many of these GUIs, the user may select an object and can manipulate or edit the object using a pointing device such as a mouse pointer. For operations that involve moving an object, the GUI allows the user to manipulate an object by dragging and dropping the object from a first location to a second location.
These CAD tools are often used in the context of designing systems, chips, or other logical representations of items to be created under certain rules or conditions. Such as enforcement of spacing requirements between objects, enforcement of overlap or contact between objects, and other rules relevant to positioning between objects and a substrate or other support structure. An electronic design automation (EDA) system for implementing an electronic design are one such type of CAD tool. Such systems typically include a graphical user interface that allows a designer to manipulate electronic components and design elements for an electronic system/component/module.
EDA tools are often used for performing design rule compliance, verification, and/or correction. These EDA tools provide processes whereby design rules may be reviewed using a graphical user interface (GUI).
However, as the complexity of the elements to be designed and the number of rules relevant to different objects has increased, the graphical user interfaces of these CAD tools, utilized by design and test engineers, have become so cluttered with reported rule violations that it can be very difficult to identify any particular rule violation of the many rule violations reported, and as such the design and test engineers face increased difficulty in performing the appropriate verification.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved approach for performing design rules driven (DRD) interactive violation display. The improved approach should provide a user a way to review rule violations in a more manageable way.